Enacts the New York state thruway authority accountability act; names the commissioner of DOT as chair of the thruway authority board; directs the commissioner of DOT to submit a plan to merge the thruway authority into the department of transportation.
STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
5564
2021-2022 Regular Sessions
IN ASSEMBLY
February 19, 2021
___________
Introduced by M. of A. BARCLAY, LALOR, McDONOUGH, BLANKENBUSH, DiPIETRO,
HAWLEY, LAWLER, MONTESANO, PALMESANO, BRABENEC, J. M. GIGLIO, SALKA,
SMULLEN, WALSH, B. MILLER, MANKTELOW, JENSEN, GALLAHAN, ASHBY, DeSTE-
FANO, LEMONDES, NORRIS -- Multi-Sponsored by -- M. of A. ANGELINO,
BROWN -- read once and referred to the Committee on Corporations,
Authorities and Commissions
AN ACT to amend the public authorities law and the transportation law,
in relation to enacting the New York state thruway authority account-
ability act
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. This act shall be known and be may cited as the "New York
2 state thruway authority accountability act".
3 § 2. Subdivision 1 of section 352 of the public authorities law, as
4 amended by chapter 766 of the laws of 2005, is amended to read as
5 follows:
6 1. (a) A board to be known as "New York state thruway authority" is
7 hereby created. Such board shall be a body corporate and politic consti-
8 tuting a public corporation. It shall consist of seven members appointed
9 by the governor by and with the advice and consent of the senate. [The
10 members first appointed shall serve for terms ending three, six and nine
11 years, respectively from January first next succeeding their appoint-
12 ment. Provided, however, that two board members first appointed on or
13 after the effective date of the chapter of the laws of two thousand five
14 which amended this subdivision shall serve an initial term of two years;
15 provided further that two other board members first appointed on or
16 after the effective date of the chapter of the laws of two thousand five
17 which amended this subdivision shall serve an initial term of three
18 years. Their successors shall be appointed for terms of nine years each.
19 A member to be designated as chairman in his or her appointment as a
20 member shall be chairman of such board until his or her term as member
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD02546-01-1
A. 5564 2
1 expires.] The commissioner of transportation shall be designated and
2 serve ex-officio as the chair of the board until the end of the term of
3 the governor by whom he or she was appointed and until his or her
4 successor is appointed and has qualified. The chairman and the other
5 members shall serve without additional salary or other compensation, but
6 shall be entitled to reimbursement for their actual and necessary
7 expenses incurred in the performance of their official duties.
8 (b) Notwithstanding any other provision of law or the provisions of
9 any appointment by the governor, the terms of all members serving as
10 such as of March thirty-first, two thousand twenty-one, or on the effec-
11 tive date of this paragraph, whichever date is later, shall immediately
12 terminate, except that such members shall continue to serve until their
13 successors are appointed and have qualified.
14 (c) Any member appointed shall have experience in one or more of the
15 following areas: transportation, business management, finance, account-
16 ing or management of large capital projects.
17 (d) Two members of the board appointed on or after April first, two
18 thousand twenty-one, shall be appointed to terms of three years; two
19 other members of the board shall be appointed to terms of four years;
20 and two members of the board shall be appointed to terms of five years,
21 provided, however, that such members shall continue to serve after the
22 end of their terms until their successors are appointed and have quali-
23 fied, and provided further that notwithstanding the term to which any
24 such member shall have been appointed such a continuation of the term of
25 a member shall not require confirmation by the senate.
26 § 3. Section 11 of the transportation law, as amended by chapter 460
27 of the laws of 1971, is amended to read as follows:
28 § 11. Department of transportation; commissioner. There shall be in
29 the state government a department of transportation. The head of the
30 department shall be the commissioner of transportation, who shall be
31 appointed by the governor, by and with the advice and consent of the
32 senate, and hold office until the end of the term of the governor by
33 whom he was appointed and until his successor is appointed and has qual-
34 ified.
35 The commissioner of transportation shall have sole charge of the
36 administration of the department and the New York state thruway authori-
37 ty established pursuant to title nine of article two of the public
38 authorities law. The commissioner of transportation shall serve as a
39 member and chair of the thruway authority board established pursuant to
40 section three hundred fifty-two of the public authorities law.
41 § 4. The transportation law is amended by adding a new section 23 to
42 read as follows:
43 § 23. New York state thruway authority administration and oversight.
44 1. The commissioner shall establish a plan to merge the operations of
45 the thruway authority with that of the department and consolidate
46 services where appropriate, provided that no employee of the authority
47 or the department shall be terminated as a consequence of the merger.
48 The commissioner shall submit a report to the governor and legislature
49 within one hundred twenty days of the effective date of this section.
50 The report shall be submitted to the temporary president of the senate,
51 the speaker of the assembly, the minority leader of the senate, the
52 minority leader of the assembly, the chair and ranking minority member
53 of the senate finance committee, the chair and ranking minority member
54 of the assembly ways and means committee, the chairs and ranking minori-
55 ty members of the senate and assembly corporations, authorities and
A. 5564 3
1 commissions committees, and the chairs and ranking minority members of
2 the senate and assembly transportation committees.
3 2. (a) The commissioner shall, within sixty days of the effective date
4 of this section, and every three years thereafter, contract with a
5 certified public accounting firm for the provision of an independent,
6 comprehensive, forensic audit of the thruway authority. Such audit shall
7 be performed in accordance with generally accepted government auditing
8 standards.
9 (b) The certified independent public accounting firm providing the
10 independent, comprehensive, forensic audit of the thruway authority
11 shall be prohibited from providing audit services if the lead or coordi-
12 nating audit partner, having primary responsibility for the audit, or
13 the audit partner responsible for reviewing the audit, has performed
14 audit services for the authority within any of the ten previous fiscal
15 years of the authority.
16 (c) The certified independent accounting firm performing the audit
17 pursuant to this section shall be prohibited from performing any non-au-
18 dit services for the authority contemporaneously with the audit.
19 (d) It shall be prohibited for the certified independent public
20 accounting firm to perform any audit service if the chief executive
21 officer, comptroller, chief financial officer, chief accounting officer
22 or any other person serving in an equivalent position in the authority
23 was an employee, consultant or independent contractor of that certified
24 independent public accounting firm and participated in any capacity in
25 the audit of the authority at any time in the past.
26 (e) The certified independent public accounting firm contracted to
27 perform the independent, comprehensive, forensic audit of the thruway
28 authority shall, within one year of the initiation of the contract,
29 report its findings, conclusions and recommendations to the governor,
30 the state comptroller, the temporary president of the senate, the speak-
31 er of the assembly, the minority leader of the senate, the minority
32 leader of the assembly, the chair and ranking minority member of the
33 senate finance committee, the chair and ranking minority member of the
34 assembly ways and means committee, the chairs and ranking minority
35 members of the senate and the assembly corporations, authorities and
36 commissions committees, and the chairs and ranking minority members of
37 the senate and the assembly transportation committees.
38 § 5. Section 360 of the public authorities law, as amended by section
39 8 of part TT of chapter 54 of the laws of 2016, is amended to read as
40 follows:
41 § 360. Operation and maintenance. Operation and maintenance by the
42 authority of any thruway section or connection or any part thereof or of
43 a highway connection of which it has assumed jurisdiction shall be
44 performed (a) by the use of authority forces and equipment at the
45 expense of the authority or by agreement at the expense of the state or
46 other parties; (b) by contract with municipalities or independent
47 contractors; (c) at the request of the [authority] commissioner, by the
48 [commissioner and his subordinates in the department of transportation
49 as agents for,] authority and at the expense of the authority, or (d) by
50 a combination of such methods.
51 § 6. Section 363 of the public authorities law, as amended by chapter
52 766 of the laws of 1992, is amended to read as follows:
53 § 363. Annual report. The authority shall submit to the governor, to
54 the [legislature, to] speaker of the assembly, the temporary president
55 of the senate, the minority leader of the senate, the minority leader of
56 the assembly, the senate finance committee, the assembly ways and means
A. 5564 4
1 committee, the comptroller and to the director of the budget on or
2 before the first day of February of each year a detailed report setting
3 forth its [operations and] fiscal transactions during the preceding
4 calendar year with a statement of its financial condition as of the end
5 of such year and a statement of all receipts and expenditures during
6 such year. Such report shall include detailed information relating to
7 additional expenditures incurred by the authority as a result of the
8 amendments made to subdivision four of section three hundred fifty-nine
9 of this [chapter] title pursuant to the chapter of the laws of nineteen
10 hundred ninety-two which enacted this sentence.
11 § 7. Section 14 of the transportation law is amended by adding a new
12 subdivision 13-a to read as follows:
13 13-a. As part of the department's annual budget request, to include
14 any requests for thruway authority toll increases and justification for
15 such increases.
16 § 8. This act shall take effect immediately.
